03/07/2012 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 03-07-2012 ,. discussed which covered Buildings, Streets, Storm,Forestry, Solid Waste, Fleet and the Waste Water Treatment Plant. We then discussed the Council Office and then Finance Director went over Revenue Assumptions and Debt. Opening comments from the mayor explains the tightness in our budget, his remarks were "The 2012 budget has been challenging. While our revenue streams are still rather unstable, this budget reflects the elimination of furloughs and returns all employees to their normal level of pay and benefits. This change alone has increased the City's overall expenditures by 1.1 million dollars. Staffing has remained relatively unchanged from last year but I would like to point out the changes. This budget reflects three positions that have been re-established: the Assistant Building Commissioner, the Fire Department Administrative Assistant and the WWTP Assistant Superintendent in Maintenance. Other positions have been eliminated or modified: the Public Works Commissioner position will not be filled, Building Maintenance is down one position, the Fire Chief s Secretary has been changed from full-time to part-time, the I.T. Director's position is being filled by contractual arrangements and the full-time Bookkeeper's position in Finance is now apart-time position (this reduction will help pay for a MLJNIS Project Administrator). There is also one additional part time janitor at the Senior Center/cabin. Additionally, there are four more positions in Service; two of these were transfers into the department and two are new hires. There is also an additional position in the Storm Water budget. The Service budgets reflect a concentration of personnel on one of my top priorities -maintaining our sewer system. Their budgets also reflect my desire to move away from financing our street repair. We are able to keep 50% of our Street Department crew in the general fund and, because of that, had $ 500,000 in the Street Maintenance Fund for recurring asphalt projects. On the benefits side, the Worker's Compensation rates remain unchanged from 2011. Our health care renewal for 2012 did not increase either. We are able to reduce our contribution to this fund due to an excellent claims experience and still have a healthy balance in the fund. That money was used to balance the general fund. This budget continues the necessary funding plan for the 27th pay, compensated absences and a small transfer into the budget stabilization fund. I feel that the Mayor's closing remark needs to be repeated due to the fact the Mayor, Finance Director and I have been saying repeatedly throughout these tough times. "I would like to reiterate that while there are a number of worthwhile ideas we would like to implement, we need to remain cautious in our budgeting. Our revenue streams and the overall economy may appear to be improving but there is no evidence as of yet that this trend will continue." The departments covered at this meeting are as follows: ~~ 3